Medical training systems are known in the prior art. One example of a medical training system is a medical simulation system, such as those produced by the Laerdal Medical AS based in Stavanger, Norway. Such medical simulation systems enable the training of students in responding to the medical needs of patients by simulating a medical emergency or other medical procedure. These needs include, but are not limited to, casualty assessment, emergency response, birthing, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is an emergency procedure that is performed in an effort to manually preserve intact brain function, until further measures can be taken to restore normal blood circulation and breathing to a patient.
The medical simulation systems often use manikins. The manikin is a life-sized anatomical human model used as a teaching aid in medical education for training students, for example doctors, nurses, paramedics, as well as other learners in, for example, emergency care and resuscitation of humans. A number of companies produce manikins. For example, Laerdal, have produced manikins in various forms since the 1960s. Generally, manikins are three-dimensional models of all or part of a human being and are intended to be as realistic as possible in order to provide the learners with a realistic situation. The manikin can be used to instruct learners using a so-called “training scenario”. The training scenarios are designed to be realistic simulations of medical emergencies that might occur in real-life. An instructor can institute one or more of the training scenarios and view how the learner responds to the implemented training scenario.
More recently e-learning systems have been introduced. For example, the Laerdal company has developed a self-directed, computer-based course for obtaining basic life support certification and is marketed under the trade name HeartCode™. The HeartCode system enables students to obtain certification and includes a local database recording the names of the students who achieve certification.
One of the issues involved with medical training is that students need to refresh their knowledge (also termed competence) of the medical simulation. Studies have shown that merely using e-learning techniques for the maintenance of competence in medical skills has been demonstrated to be not sufficiently adequate (see Jensen et al “Using e-learning for maintenance of ALS competence, Resuscitation 80 (2009) 903-908). The Jensen et al. article concluded that the use of an e-learning program in order to maintain or boost competence in a medical school was inadequate. The primary factor influencing these results was the lack of social interaction with the patient.
A number of e-learning systems for medical simulation are known. For example, Laerdal Medical offers a SimStore centre together with the US Company HealthStream, Nashville, Tenn., which is an e-warehouse that supports the distribution and sale of medical simulation content. Further details of the SimStore and related SimCenter product are included in the Laerdal product information bulletin 11-002, dated 18 Apr. 2011. This product information bulletin describes the global launch of the SimCenter product. The medical simulation content in the SimStore is designed to be used with training products and other medical simulation products, such as those produced by the Laerdal Company.
The term student as used in this disclosure is not intended to exclusively mean an undergraduate or college student who is attending an MD course, a B. Med. course or similar. The term “student” is also intended to apply to health-care professionals, such as an already-qualified nurse, doctor or paramedic who requires basic and refresher training to maintain his or her competence. It will be appreciated that the term “student” is therefore widely understood in the context of this disclosure to mean those people undergo training using medical simulation devices, e-learning or practical experience.
One of the issues involved in maintenance of competence in medical procedure with a skilled person, such as a doctor, experienced nurse or paramedic is the need to convince an experienced student of the value of further or refresher training Many such experienced students tend not to take medical training on medical simulation devices seriously because they are involved in day-to-day instances in which this medical training is put to practical use. As a result, such students tend not to perform as well as expected on such devices.
A similar problem is encountered with students who rarely, if ever, are faced with a real-life medical emergency. Such “inexperienced” students also tend not to take the training on the medical simulation system as seriously as they should, because they do not expect to need this training Such “inexperienced” students, as well as other medical personal, tend also to regard such training on the medical simulation systems as being of a lower priority than many of their other tasks. The students therefore avoid going to a specialised training unit, possibly based in another building or at another location, in order to revive their competences and obtain the necessary recertifications. For hospitals and other medical services, the lack of certified personal can be an issue in a medical emergency, particularly if there a later enquiry about the competences of the personnel involved in the medical emergency.
In addition to a traditional medical simulation system, new types of medical training systems and medical monitoring systems have been introduced in order to monitor and evaluate students in real-life situations. For example, US Patent Application Publication No. US 2008/0312565 (assigned to the Board of Regents of the University of Texas system, Austin, Tex. and Laerdal Medical, Stavanger, Norway) describes a CPR sensor including a thin and substantially flat flexible substrate having one or more sensor arrays, a power source, an output interface, a processor or analogue circuit incorporated into a credit-card flat flexible substrate. The CPR sensor of the US '565 publication can be easily carried in a wallet or other personal belonging or item of clothing so that the CPR sensor can be located quickly during an emergency. The CPR sensor is placed on or near to the hands of the person administering CPR and is able to provide immediate feedback to the person administering CPR to indicate that he or she is correctly administering CPR. The incorporation of the output interface enables a transfer of the real-life data to a database for further evaluation at a later stage. The storage of the real-life data in the database can be invaluable when reviewing the person's competence in performing CPR and/or for evaluating the performance of the CPR in the event that there is an enquiry or a lawsuit related to the performance of the CPR.